C'garh Assembly: Oppn attacks Cong govt over farmers' issues

Opposition legislators on Tuesday created uproar in Chhattisgarh Assembly accusing the ruling Congress of being anti-farmer, and 18 of them were suspended after trooping into the Well of the House.

Raising the issue of agrarian distress, MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and Bahujan Samaj Party sought a discussion through an adjournment notice which was rejected by the Chair.

After Question Hour, BJP MLA Shivratan Sharma, former chief minister Raman Singh, Leader of Opposition Dharamlal Kaushik, former minister Brijmohan Agrawal, JCC(J) chief Ajit Jogi, his party MLA Dharmjeet Singh and other opposition members raised the issue of farmers and demanded a discussion.

Alleging that farmers were facing problems, BJP members said the Congress' promise of farm loan waiver within 10 days of coming to power had failed though the Congress government took over in December last year.

Moreover, farmers were not getting fresh loans, seeds and fertilizers and were also bearing the brunt of a weak monsoon, these MLAs alleged.

Chhattisgarh was experiencing power cuts, which in turn was affecting agriculture pumps, they said.

As per statistics of waiver available, loans of only 62 per cent farmers were written off, they said.

Speaker Charandas Mahant asked Agriculture Minister Ravindra Choubey whether he wanted a discussion on the issue, to which the latter replied that the adjournment motion notice was not as per rules.

Choubey said issues related to different departments were mentioned together in the adjournment motion notice.

Angry with the minister's reply, BJP legislators said the monsoon session should be dedicated to farmers and discussion should be held keeping them at the centre.

Meanwhile, senior Congress MLA Satyanarayan Sharma, who was in the Chair, said the speaker had already rejected the adjournment motion notice and no further debate could be held on it.

Amid heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches on the issue, the Chair adjourned the proceedings for 10 minutes.

Later, when the House resumed, the opposition again demanded a discussion on the issue, which was rejected.

Following this, 14 legislators of BJP, two each of JCC (J) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) came to the Well of the House and were automatically suspended. Their suspension was later revoked.